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Archived: Jobs for Homeless Young People: prevents youth homelessness

iCrowdNewswire - Sep 14, 2015

Jobs for Homeless Young People

• Your Own Place prevents youth homelessness. Youth homelessness affects everyone and prevents young people from becoming who they want to be. It’s hard enough to get somewhere to live, so we think it’s worth holding on to.

• That’s why we don’t just want young people to have all the skills they need such as knowing how to budget and avoiding spiralling debt – but to have a job too!

• Having a job makes a huge difference and not just to income. It makes a difference to self-esteem, confidence in their future and actual life chances.

• With the money raised through this campaign we will employ an inspirational worker to get our young people a job.

• Our worker will move heaven and earth to get the young people we work with into volunteering, work experience and other job opportunities. Alongside this they’ll also be getting ready for their first taste of independence in their own place.

• Your Own Place’s new worker will work with each young person individually to support them as well as provide fantastic training so that they are ready for work when the opportunity arises.

• Our worker will get to know them really well so that they can ensure they get all the support they need to take the next steps into employment, increase their incomes and have a better chance of avoiding future homelessness.

• Of course we’re not just talking about any job. We want some of them to be peer trainerswith Your Own Place! That’s because we believe that young people learn best from other young people who been in their shoes – or shoes very like them!

• What are the benefits of this?

– young people get a job– young people increase their income– young people are better at paying their rent and avoiding debt and eviction– young people help our organisation to increase its impact by reaching more young people at risk of homelessness – because they know best!– young people learn from other young people with similar experiences to them– you, me, communities and tax-payers benefit from reduced homelessness, reduced benefit claims, reduced crime and young people reaching their potential

The Problem:

· The majority of people seeking help with homelessness are under 25.

· Because housing is in short supply and expensive it is getting harder for young people to find and keep a home.

· Young people who have experienced homelessness in youth are more likely to be homeless and unemployed in adulthood and we all pay the price of this.

Can you give us some statistics on this problem?

– 52% of people applying to the housing office as homeless are under 25

– homelessness because of financial problems has increased sixfold

– 48% of young people who become homeless are under 21

– Norwich has seen an increase in the number of young people claiming jobseeker’s allowance

– 80,000 young people will experience homelessness in 2015

– Most homelessness is as a result of eviction (due to non payment of rent) and abandoning the property because it just hasn’t worked out

Our solution:

· We are solving two problems at once – youth homelessness and unemployment.

· This virtuous circle means that by solving one problem you’ve got more chance of solving the second. It goes like this:

– someone with a job is more likely to be able to pay the rent and keep their home.

– someone with a home is more likely to be able to hold down a job. Simple!

How will you deliver this?

– At Your Own Place we do things differently. We start from the young person’s strengths, positive experiences and aspirations. Like you and me, they have hopes, dreams and aspirations for their future. We don’t label and we don’t give up.

– Everything we do is unprejudiced and totally flexible to whatever else is going on in the young person’s life.

– Our independence training, volunteer training, mentor training and 1-2-1 employment support is of the best possible quality. This ensures that the young person feels valued and special from the beginning of the relationship. Without this trust there is no relationship, no progress and no job.

– We work tirelessly to find the right support for them at the right time, which means we work openly with colleagues who can complement what we do.

All of these values will underpin the training programme and 1-2-1 support that our inspirational new worker will provide to young people coming on board as our peer trainers.